In another life
by solveariddle
Summary: In another life - perhaps they all never would have met, and neither of them would be part of the BAU team. This is a twoshot, speculating on what kind of alternative life each character would lead. Team fic.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: After my last stories that concentrated more on H/P and the Doyle storyline, I am looking for some new inspiration to boost my creativity. Ah, well, maybe I'm just looking for a variation. A change is as good as a rest. And that's the result. A team fic in the widest sense. There is no focus on one character. The golden thread is the comparison what kind of (fictitious) life everyone of them would lead, if they weren't members of the BAU. It wasn't as easy as I expected it to be to write a passage about all of them. So I'd really appreciate it, if you let me know whether I got the characters right. TWOSHOT. The next part will be up soon – perhaps even sooner if you leave a review. Thanks in advance! :)**

**Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. This is just for fun. CBS owns Criminal Minds.**

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><p>In another life Penelope Garcia would be on the list of the FBI's most wanted.<p>

She's a hacker at heart. There hasn't been one computer free day in her life since puberty. It's like an addiction. She needs to let her fingers dance across the keyboard, doing things most people can't even begin to understand. Every firewall she breaks through is a victory, every password she uncovers a triumph. She can't _not_ do it, just like she can't stop breathing. Thus there were only two logical paths for her – to end up in prison sooner rather than later or to find a job that allows her to act out her exceptional talent in – at least predominantly – legal ways.

In this life fortunately the FBI took notice of this crazy and lovely and most of the time blonde chick.

It's much better to wear a badge and be a technical analyst than to wear an orange overall and be locked away for good. Albeit on most days she can't believe that she actually gets paid for doing something that is pure enjoyment. Well, most of it that is. Truth be told, the crimes they are investigating scare her to death. Hence her office is her castle, hiding place and sanctuary at the same time. The horrible things that happen in the real world take place in here only on screen. If it gets too much, she only has to push the button, shut off the monitor and she is safe. And safe is what she wants the victims to be. There are not many who survive, but for every saved soul she buys another toy, another freaky little piece she puts up in her office. There can never be enough.

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><p>In another life David Rossi would have been married at least ten times and would have written just as many books.<p>

His current wife would be not too young, but young and attractive enough to be representative (he is a philanderer and bon vivant after all and that's no secret even in real life). He would wake up to the smell of coffee that he would drink while perusing the daily newspaper and still wearing his dressing gown. As a writer sticking to the rules, like getting dressed before noon, would be irrelevant. There would be a steady rhythm of readings, lectures and voluptuous pleasure with (various) women. It would all be as amusing as tedious.

In this life the gentlemen profiler would be bored to death, living such a cliché.

He had a reason for coming back to the BAU. And there was more to it than exorcising the demons of his old unsolved case. He would never admit it, but as much as his experience is useful for the BAU as much is the team useful – if you want to call it that – for him. When he looks back on his life, of course he has achieved something. He fell in love (and got divorced but still...); he wrote books (and became famous). At the end of the day, though, what remained were just memories. And he isn't old enough to be satisfied with looking back. He wants to look ahead. And he has found a way to do that as a member of the BAU. A team he has come to depend on. As the oldest member he is father figure, older brother or confidant – as required. He is neither the chatty type nor does he socialize much with the others. However when push comes to shove, he is there for the team and vice versa. That's something he never even had during his marriages. For crying out loud, he indeed cooked for the team, invited them (albeit not completely voluntarily) to his mansion. And the best part of it is that – while he seemingly complained about it – he actually enjoyed it, because he has never felt so at home like he does with this team.

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><p>In another life JJ would be a model or an actress.<p>

She never told anyone at the FBI about it (although they for sure found out anyway when they checked her background), but she was the beauty queen of her high school and several model agencies approached her to sign her on. Her family and friends encouraged her to do it. Perhaps success was waiting for her. Perhaps she was short of ending up as a wannabe actress or model, waitressing for the rest of her life. It doesn't matter, though. It never was her intention anyway. No-one knew that she was secretly reading all these books about serial killers and profiling. No-one knew that the blonde beauty had so much more potential than her pretty face.

In this life the lamb is chasing wolfs.

Eventually she has made it to the table. She does not stand in front of her colleagues anymore, presenting the cases; she is one of the profilers now, sitting side by side with the others. Maybe the team realizes it and they just don't say anything. Maybe she has perfected hiding her emotions during the last years when the wish to be more than the media liaison had been eating her up inside. Howsoever she is utterly scared to make a mistake, hungry for appreciation, and tries very hard not to show it. It's not clear yet whether the price she has to pay for being a profiler will be too high, whether her relationship will survive the inconvenient fact that her job is her priority, even if she loves Will and Henry with all her heart. There are serial killers who look innocent and sweet, like an angel, when actually they are the most despicable monsters and there are profilers who look innocent and sweet, like an angel too, when actually their soul is dark enough to understand and catch these monsters. All she can do is hope that her family has the strength to accept why she has to do to this, because she wouldn't be able to do it without their support.

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><p>In another life Spencer Reid would be the inmate of a psychiatric hospital or a college professor.<p>

With his genetic loading of mental illness and his intelligence quotient that is way above average, depression and perhaps even insanity are always only one step away, lurking around every corner. For his colleagues he is the fascinating extraordinary appearance and his eidetic memory was useful many times. For the world outside of the BAU he mainly is a freak – he has no illusions about this. Therefore teaching students at some university is one possibility of an alternative life scenario, but unfortunately more unlikely than the other alternative that he simply would dash against life.

In this life the genius is very lifelike.

He has adjusted to his role within the BAU. You could label him as the integrated outsider. Despite his futile efforts to appear normal, he is just too smart, his thoughts are too fast and his brilliant conclusions are out of reach for everybody else. On the other hand he is an established member of the team, even hangs out with the others once in a while and has developed a sense of humor that even ordinary people can understand. He knows that the other team members feel as if they have to protect him and he isn't sure whether he likes it or not. The team is his comfort zone, his protection against the world, but some day he wants to spread his wings, although he does not aim to fly away.

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><p>To be continued<p>

**So... what do you think so far? **

**Please let me and my frail writer's ego know! :)**

**In the next chapter there will be (of course) Morgan, Prentiss and Hotch.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: See first chapter. Thank you for reading and reviewing! **

**Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. This is just for fun. CBS owns Criminal Minds.**

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><p>In another life Derek Morgan would tear down walls or even houses for a living.<p>

It's not the destruction that he savors – it's what follows, creating something new, building something else, preferably something better. Of course, he also savors the physical effort. He feels alive when he rams his sledgehammer into a wall. These days tearing down walls in one of his real estates is only a hobby, an outlet to blow off his steam. Before he joined the FBI, though, he had plans to work with street kids and the first thing he would have done with them is tear a decrepit building down and construct a new one. There is no better way to learn team play and respect for someone else's achievement.

In this life the fighter is always prepared for the hunt, always looking for its prey.

There is not much time left to tear down walls and, frankly, on some days he is just too tired to do it anymore. Usually in the field he is the first to kick in doors, wrestle down an unsub, put himself in the line of fire. He is a profiler, but that doesn't mean that he can't enjoy the physical part of his job. Hunting serial killers has a lot to do with how animals behave in the wild. There is knowledge (profiling) and there is instinct and that's when he lets his body take over. Sometimes, albeit thank God not too often, they lose the game and don't catch the monster. When the hunter failed and the prey is still out there, he tears down walls for some completely other reason than creating something new. He does it to stay sane, to subdue his demons, to calm his anger. And after he tore down the wall, he feels better, is able to concentrate again – because there is always a prey out there somewhere and the hunter doesn't have the luxury to show weakness. That's why he's in great shape and his stomach is so well-toned that it's bordering on ridiculous (although the ladies like it). He protects those who can't defend themselves. He is the line between life and death.

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><p>In another life Emily Prentiss would still be looking for herself.<p>

At a young age she learned how to be who people expected her to be. The perfect daughter of a diplomat, easily adapting to changing surroundings, different countries and cultures, like a chameleon. As a consequence over the years she forgot how to be herself. And when Interpol required an agent for an undercover assignment, she was almost glad to do it, relieved that eventually there was someone again who told her who to be. But it didn't work out the way she had planned it. It was no simple temporary role play. Her alias threatened to erase the last parts of her own personality and she swore to herself that if she made it out alive, she would stop being who people wanted her to be.

In this life the ex-super-spy burned all her fake identities.

Being herself was a struggle at first. She overstated her case a bit here and there, as for instance when she told her unit chief about the delicate relationship with her mother and that she hated politics or when she refused to be Strauss' mole and resigned instead. Situations she perhaps could have handled differently, more... politically correct, but she simply didn't want to. After all these years of disguise and lies she wanted honesty more than anything else, even if it meant doing things the hard way. However being her – at times admittedly recalcitrant – self felt right and always worked out fine at the end of the day. The team and especially Hotch – who had been overly down on her at the beginning – accepted her as a part of their BAU family. A family she never had had in real life. Only one last time she had been forced to lie again, when they had faked her death in order to save her and avert danger from the team. It was a lie she didn't choose to tell. When she had come out of the coma, it already had been set up. Her death. Her funeral. Her tombstone. And in a way it would have fit. She really would have been as good as dead, if Doyle hadn't been caught and she hadn't gotten the chance to return. Using another name, living another life is no longer an alternative. She needs to be herself and no-one else. As painful as it is sometimes, it is the one truth she finally has accepted; the one truth that matters. She knows who she is nowadays and she wouldn't want to be anyone else come what may.

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><p>In another life Aaron Hotchner would still be the unit chief of the BAU.<p>

There simply is no other life he can imagine. He is devoted to his job with every fiber of his body. He lost his marriage and nearly his life over this devotion. And even if he regrets what happened, confronted with the same situations he would do it exactly the same again. Most people only see this fierce devotion, his deadly stare and his seemingly cold behavior. He's ok with this. His team knows that there is a heart underneath the steely appearance, that there is blood running through his veins and not ice. And that's all that matters to him these days – his team. Well, besides his son. To both he is the man who runs the show and he wouldn't have it any other way.

In this life the alpha male sometimes thinks about resigning.

Sometimes it's just too much. And that's not even referring to unusual horrible days such as when his (ex-)wife was killed or Foyet stabbed him or New York or Doyle or... Well, there were many bad days in his life. Nonetheless it is the normal days that get to him. The nice neighbor who kills his whole family. The friendly brother who abducts and tortures women. The unsuspicious co-worker who molests children. This malice beneath the calm surface defines his conception of the world anew every day. Because they might be the good guys, but they will never win. He believes in his job, in the unavoidable necessity of what he does. Yet sometimes he just don't want to be the one who has to do it anymore. One day he will wake up and know that it's enough. This won't be today or tomorrow. Some day, though... He wants to grow old and play with his grandchildren, tell them about their grandmother they never met. He is aware that if he doesn't drop out freely, one day fate will catch him up, showing him that he's not invincible. Because in spite of the steely appearance and the reputed ice that runs through his veins, he bleeds like everybody else.

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><p>In another life the BAU would be... someone else.<p>

Someone has to do the job and someone for sure would. Such jobs are, even if they are dangerous, highly coveted. But it takes more than seven independent and highly intelligent people to be a team. And it takes more than someone with the right title to be their unit chief. Being a team means that you have to think not only for yourself, but as a part of a union. All for one, one for all. They are no musketeers, but the motto fits all the same. Well, Aaron Hotchner most likely would be the unit chief, since this is his one and only aim in life. The rest, though, who knows...

In this life they are one of a kind, a sworn community.

They consider the team family, although this basically is a description in lack of a better paraphrase. Most of the time they might not be as close as family members are (at least in an intact family). Some of them even have their own families. Yet there is the undeniable truth that they spend more time together than with anybody else, that they understand each other non-verbal, that they trust each other with their lives. And this invisible bond ties them together and is stronger than anything else. They are friends. They are family. They are... one of a kind.

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><p>The end<p>

**Yes, I know, the ending might be a bit over the top, but I was in an emotional mood and perhaps you liked it.**

**Now did you? Tell the review button. :)**


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